It's Our Pleasure To Serve You
TMBG Barrymore Theatre Madison WI 10/11/09 (behind the scenes) Rohan Johnson: At lot of the banter was the same or similar to the day before but I'll recount the new stuff. John Flansburgh: I made a great point of greeting the people in the balcony whom he couldn't see because the balcony was so far back. I also checked several times to make sure there was enough light for the parents to "do what we need to do" with their kids. John Linnell: During The Famous Polka, I was walking backward while playing the accordion and tripped over the corner of a carpet on stage. BlueCanary thought he was going to fall backward but he caught myself and managed to keep playing the entire time. Impressive! We really should have taped that carpet though because Danny caught my mic stand on it later too. Danny Weinkauf: Before Paleontologist I said that they have come to Madison every year and in the twelve years i have been in the band i have never gotten to sing for the Madison fans so i was very happy to be allowed to do so. BlueCanary’s friend shouted "about time" at him which he really appreciated. John Flansburgh: During WDTSS, Danny got up on the drum platform again and this time stretched out to play both one of the drums and the cymbol at the same time. BlueCanary thinks Marty should be concerned that Danny is getting too fond of being a drummer. Linnell added battleships into items that are gas on the sun and the nuclear reactions were caused by the watusi, the fox trot, the two-step and the waltz (said as if it was a much dreaded dance). John Linnell: When they set off the old confetti canons during Bed, the one of the left by us shot a few clumps into the air (one of which landed on the girl next to me, to her surprise and delight) but most of the confetti stayed in the canon. Danny reached into the canon and took out another wad to throw at the crowd and kicked some confetti off the stage. After the song, i said that the canon had been a bit of a disappointment and they thought they might have to offer a partial refund to the audience: one penny, plus a piece of confetti. BlueCanary wonder if anyone took them up on it. Marty Beller: While introducing Me before Alphabet Lost and Found, Flans said that TMBG was just my day job and that i really sang in a boy band called Color Me Sync'd. John Flansburgh: During the puppet bit, I-puppet was going on about my coffee cup hat again and said the kids might recognize it better if it was turned right-side up. So I turned his head upside-down in front of the camera to display the coffee cup and turned the "It's Our Pleasure To Serve You" message to the camera which Linnell-puppet read it to the crowd. This got lots of cheers. John Linnell: Flans messed up a line in Shooting Star and changed the next one a little to rhyme better. After the song, he attributed his brain lapse to the popcorn smell in the theater which was distracting him (they were selling popcorn in the lobby). Dan Miller: Before Doctor Worm, Flans said "the next song is about a doctor who thinks he's a worm but is really a worm who thinks he's a doctor." John Flansburgh: When I made the announcement about the free stickers i made the shocking revelation that they had recently learned that you CAN put the Science stickers on your face. Linnell told the crowd that it wouldn't hurt to put the stickers on but it would hurt to take them off. I demonstrated some of the stickers and put the Roy G. Biv sticker on my guitar. I realized after doing it that it might not have been a good idea and said "that's gonna leave a mark" but it was too late to take it off. Ralph Carney: We finished with an extremely long lasting confetti blast at the end of Istanbul. It was marked on the setlist as "confetti for a long time."